“He could be suffering something akin to the affliction of John Nash depicted by Russell Crowe in the movie, ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ ” lawyer Frank Dunham wrote in papers released yesterday.

“Mr. Nash, a Nobel Prize winner, was suffering from debilitating paranoid schizophrenia. Because he was such a genius, his illness was difficult to recognize by those around him. Mr. Moussaoui’s high intellect has much the same effect here,” the lawyer added.

Moussaoui’s lawyers want federal Judge Leonie Brinkema to refuse to let Moussaoui fire them, although a court-appointed psychiatrist recently found Moussaoui to be sane enough to make that decision on his own.